Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ v ...0 .o ...., u o Loris Capiro ssi (I ), Kazuto Sakata (35) and Nobuyuki Wa,hi (39) were this close for mos t of the 125cc GP. John Kocinski (center) celebrates hi s first 500cc GP victory along with second place finisher Wa yne Gardner (ri gh t) andthird-placed Michael Doohan (left). " Bu t later on I cou ld mat ch Magee's times, though I was too far ba ck to ca tch him." He finished 20 seconds behind the Australian. H e and fellow Sonauto-Yamaha rider Adrien Morillas were mixed lIP with de Radigues, who was troubled with front and rear wheel slidi ng on o ne of Schwantz's bik es, wh ich he had found (like Schwantz) was sensi tive mach ine that was either set up perfectly or was way of£. His was the latter, and he said: "I nearly crashe d so often ." In th e end, Morillas led him across th e line for sevent h by just o ver half-a-second. They were th e last riders o n th e same lap as the leaders, with Papa's Honda triple leading th e privateers, and two lap s adrift. There were 14 finishers. As well as Ru ggia, the retirem ents were Sito Pons, wh o had been riding strongly in seven th before h e wa s forced to retire with his injured hand badl y swo llen ; and Doug Chandler, who pitted after only seven laps with termina l fron t wh eel cha tter. Thus the last race was com pleted in the abs ence of the first an d third p laced people in the cham p ionshi p , Rainey and Schwant z, with Doohan's second p lace in any case secure. Kocinski and Ga rdner fin ished eq ual o n points, but th e American 's better resu lts (includ-; ing this win ) gave him fourth pl ace overal l. The absem Lawson was sixth . a 250cc GP 24 th at th e guy beh ind was catching me." (It was Ruggia , soon to retire wit h eng ine trouble.) " T he th in g was wobbli ng its brains out. Wh en J ohn came up beh ind me, I cou ld feel it weavin g. It felt like a broken frame , th ou gh I don' t think it was tha t reall y. But the bike was perfec t in the ,m o rn i n g , a nd ba d i n th e afternoon. I even had to bac k off into the fas t co rner a t the en d o f the straight. " After the race, hi s mech anics wer e still investi ga ting; w hile Michelin were examining hi s tires, to ' see if they could trace the problem . Behind this battle, Garriga had been fending off Ruggia until hi s rear tire started sliding, a nd he was unable to keep the pressure on . Then, wit h four la ps left , Ruggi a p ulled o u t with motor problems. Meanwhile, Kevin Magee was also not qui te able to get closer to the Spa n ia rd than a ta nta lizi ng two seconds at the fin ish . " We had engine trouble, and had to change everyth ing the night befor e the race," the Austra lian said. "We had to guess at carburatio n and gearbox setti ngs, and we weren't qui te spo t-on. " But he was happy eno ugh to hav e started at all and to have fini shed stro ngly. Sixth-placed Mackenzie fought his way through aft er losing ground at the beginning with a cl u tch tha t slip ped for the first two laps. " I hit (Didier) de Radigues a coup le of tim es, and I also had some whe~lspi n ," he said. In a n all-Honda affair , Bradl' s Honda led the first lap, but Cardus o utbraked him at the end of th e back straigh t on the second, by which time Cada lora was fifth, behind Masahiro Shimi zu and Alex Criville. It took th e new champion umil lap six to get into second, by which time there were four in the leading group, packed up tight. But Cadalora's arrival . stretched it o ut again, so that two laps la ter it was just him and Cardus up from, wi th Bradl settling for a safe th ird place, and Shimizu crashing hi s Honda unhurt. For the next 20-odd laps, the old rivals prodded and probed at one another. Cadalora had an advantage, it seemed, o n acceleration and speed, while Cardus was as usual the last of thelate, late brakers, especiall y at th e sixth-gear bend leading into the Lucky Strike Loop, wh ere he repassed Cadalora tim e af ter time. And so .i t went, with the battle simply getting fiercer and fiercer, umil an absolu te classic of a last lap. They swo pped back and forth five times in all, but this tim e Cadalora was tight into th e cru cial loop, and stayed in front. No problem to Cardus, wh o held off hi s overtaking move until the exit from th e corner. But it was too late, and i Cadalora had a bett er line into the next corne r, and led to th e finish. Behind .Brad l, Criville was having a stro ng but lon ely race. But he had tro uble comi ng up from behind Zeelenberg's H onda was leading Reggia n i a n d slow-startin g Wimm er. T he n on lap 14 Zeelenberg lost the rear wheel o n Suzu ki Corner, and slid o ut ~ unhurt. This a llo wed hi s rivals to up thei r pa ce, and they gra dua lly clo sed I o n Cri vill e. . In th e last two laps, bo th over-' whelmed him to take fourth and fifth . pl aces. Albert o Puig succeeded at the finish in fending off Pi er-Francesco Chili's April ia; the pair ou tru nn ing a fierce battle for ninth won at the last gasp , by J.P J eandat from Kozono, Renz o , Coll eoni, Sch mid and Ha engelli. Dori an o Rom boni was ano ther nonfinisher, with Urs Jucker and Pa ol o Casoli also cras hi n g o u t together without inj ury. There wer e no cha n ge s i n th e cha m p io ns h ip top p ositions, with Cadalora, Bradl and Cardus taking the top three pl aces, Zeelenberg fourth , then Sh imizu, Reggian i and Chili. ' I25cc G P Kazu to Sakata set' his firs t front-row pos i tio n , fro m Wakai , Capirossi , I Takada and Casanova, and led the first four laps, But it was Adi Stadl er wh o 1 leapt through fro m the thi rd row to ' tra il the J apan ese rider, with Capirossi behind, and Casan ova already losing ground at the head of the pursuit grou p. Th e le ad ing trio pu lled away impressively as the o thers shu££led aro u nd beh ind them, but all the while . J org e Martinez was workin g hi s way up from a poor start, and by lap six he was at the head of th e pursui t, and " already clos ing up a gap of clo se on . two seconds. Befor e half-distan ce he was with the ; lea ders , a n d Wa kai , Gresin i a n d Debbia had come with h im. Wh at had , been a three-bike battle turned in to a 'seven -b i ke battl e, wi th Capirossi genera lly setting the pace, but the others making sure any attempt he made to break away didn't las t long. And so they went, back and forth. When Capirossi wasn 't in front, Sakata was, bu t anyone of the rest of th e seven co uld ha ve wo n. The on ly probabil ity was that the J apan ese rider would overreach himself and fall of£. Well , he con founded the critics, and , stayed on - in stead it was Martinez ' who fell o n lap 22, comp laining abou t rough ridin g from both of the Japan ese. But nobod y could match Capirossi's charge in the closing laps. It was all he and Wakai could do to sta y in tou ch , to finish in that or der. Behind them, stretching o ut som ewhat, Gres ini led Debbia and . the fading Stadler. Veda defeated Raudies for seventh, the Japanese double winner out of touch wit h Bridgestones that didn 't suit the circuit. A little way back , ano ther group saw four bikes across the line in less than a seco nd - ' Takada , Wada, Casanova and

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